With a heavy heart due to hearing
about my mother’s health, I left home to join AREC for a run that I hoped would
lighten my spirits and relieve my angst. If you told me 6 weeks ago that I will
be running 9 miles by today, I’d would have told you that you’re nuts. Then
I’ll tell you that I would be nuts to try doing it. Well it turns out you are
not crazy after all but I may be.
Before the run, one of the AREC
members was selling new blue AREC team tank tops. I tried the men’s small size
over my t-shirt but it felt tight. Before trying the medium, I asked Kevin if I
could try on the small without the shirt underneath and he agreed. Voila! The
tank top fit perfectly so I bought it. Really, I don’t know why I would buy
one. I have a yellow one from years past that I rarely wear because as you know
I don’t participate in races any more. I guess I’ll have to wear them on my
rare routine runs instead.
I encountered Mike and Jennifer on
my warm up jog to the rest room and found out the unfortunate news that Mike
would need arthroscopic knee surgery to repair a torn meniscus. He will miss
the Long Beach half marathon but it will still be a go for his wife Jennifer
whom I ran with the previous week. After I took that short warm up jog to and
from the bathroom, I felt that it might be a good day for running.
At the start of the run, I stuck
behind Dona and Bhavana (the nurse whose name I forgot two
weeks ago). We hit the first mile at almost exactly 10 minute pace which may
have been a little too fast for my comfort. Fortunately they seemed to have
eased it shortly thereafter. At two miles I took a little hop on my right foot
because I felt a twinge in my left ankle. I thought I had tweaked it, but
luckily it was just a misstep and didn’t get any worse. When we hit the water
station at about three miles, I saw Jennifer and Ellen just a few steps behind
so I joined them after the water break. I ran with Ellen once two years ago and
she had gotten married since then. It was during last Saturday’s run that I
heard the joyous news that she was expecting a baby. I hardly noticed the
slight baby bump. Her doctor gave her permission to run as long as she did it
at a pace that she can talk without being breathless. Well, that does it! I can
never get pregnant because I need the breathless experience that working out
gives me. Well, being the wrong gender helps. With Ellen’s non breathless
running, the topics of conversation between her, Jennifer, and I ranged from
their birthdays, their significant others’ birthdays, and mine which I
announced that I was now officially a senior citizen, to learning that Ellen
worked in the fashion industry (something that didn’t come up two years ago).
Other things discussed were eye doctors, dermatologists, primary care
physicians, death and dying. On that last topic, we talked about end of life
care and euthanasia. I won’t expound on that because we touched on some
personal matters and preferences.
All that talking took us to just
short of the last mile where Ellen had to walk briefly to catch her breath. I
don’t think it was the running that caused her to be briefly breathless, but
the talking. So Jennifer and I went ahead. When I turned my head around to check
on Ellen, I saw that Dona and Bhavana had caught up with her and she resumed
running. The course was slightly short of 9 miles so I asked Jennifer if she
wanted to turn around and join the pack of three who were only slightly behind
us. We did that for a couple of hundred meters until we reached that last hill
(2nd Street Bridge). Jennifer started picking up the pace going up
and I tucked behind her before launching a counter attack. I risked life and
limb (well, not life) attacking that last hill. That unwise move could have overstretched
my ankle tendons again and I would have been out of running for months again.
When I peaked the bridge, I eased up and didn’t attempt to roll down the other
side like I used to in the past. With about 200 meters to go, Jennifer said
let’s pick up the pace and finish strong. In years past, I may have taken up
her challenge but this time I declined. I already took a big risk attacking
that last hill hoping my ankles would hold up, so that was enough pushing for
the day for me. I then returned to Dona, Bhavana, and Ellen, and finished the
run with them.
There should be no more surprises
about running for me since I’ve been doing it for more than 30 years, however
nowadays, every running step I make surprises me. In this case, 9 miles of
steps.
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